(You Are) Welcome to Follow Toto!

When we ordered Toto we thought we might have to store him someplace other than the private estate where we make our home. That’s because the estate consists of a one-story home on a standard city-size lot, and there’s not much room for recreational vehicles.

Side note: despite its diminutive acreage, our estate seems to have room enough for an abundance of weeds. Huh.

Only place for Toto: on the left, beside the house. Precious little wiggle room. Fence, and a bunch of other stuff, in the way. Squishy lawn with fragile sprinklers for an approach. Oh, dear.

We asked the folks at the Escape factory about the trailer’s dimensions, as posted on their website, to see what they truly represented. It’s a good thing we did. Example: the listed width did not include the five or six inches used up by the awning in its retracted (stored) state. With things this tight, we needed to know about every inch. Glad we asked.

To get Toto back there beside the house, we would need to (1) replace at least a portion of the soft squishy lawn with something more driveway-like, (2) move the fence and gate toward the street so there would be room for Toto behind it, (3) move (or remove) one of two small sheds, (4) cut back overhanging trees from the neighbor’s yard (they graciously allowed us to do that), and (5) move our heat pump’s outdoor unit back toward the back yard, so Toto would have room to fit.

Eeesh. This is going to be expensive.

But we figured that it would pay for itself over time, in saved storage rental fees. And we’re pretty sure the trailer is more secure from evil thieves and vandals if it’s stored here next to our house, behind a locked gate, where the vicious terriers can protect it.

I agonized for a while: concrete? blacktop asphalt? gravel? pavers? In the end, economics led me to mostly gravel, with a pad of pavers where Toto’s tires would rest. The lawn would disappear altogether, but we wouldn’t take the gravel all the way to the street. This was an effort to keep our front yard from resembling an airport runway — that driveway is big enough, for Pete’s sake. So we would need a small landscaped area for street appeal and to put up the appearance of being good neighbors.

Grass gone. Sprinklers rerouted. TV cable barely escaped destruction. Gate gone. One of two sheds gone. You can see the heat pump that will have to move.

Here come the gravel and brick edging! The sand goes under the brick, and under some pavers where Toto’s wheels will rest. Yeah, you’re right, that’s not enough gravel. We had to get a few more yards after this batch.

Here’s how it looked at the end. The shrubs are all babies, but they’ll grow.

Toto, tucked away.

Getting Toto tucked back in there is an adventure — every time. More on that later.

Subscribe and be joyous.

Toto will send you an innocuous email whenever there's a new post. Wally and Tyler manage the email list, and they promise not to share your information with anyone, anywhere. And they always keep their word.